Bp. James D. Conley on Health Care Reform

Perhaps the fellow who wrote the next piece is one of the reasons why.

From the site of First Things with my emphases and comments comes this from Denver’s Auxiliary Bishop James D. Conley.

A Healthcare Problem Washington May Have MissedNov 6, 2009Bishop James D. Conley

With more than 620 Catholic hospitals serving the public around the United States, hundreds of Catholic medical clinics and shelters, and even a few Catholic-affiliated medical schools, Catholics have a keen interest in healthcare reform. That interest isn’t new. It’s rooted in experience, including the experience of trying to help people with little or no health insurance at all. For decades, the U.S. bishops have pushed for an overhaul of our nation’s healthcare industry and the way it delivers its services. Why? Because the Church sees access to basic health care as a right and a social responsibility, not a privilege.

But Catholic support for the general principle of reform does not bind anyone to endorse a specific piece of legislation. [Right. There are some principles we cannot abandon, but people of good will can disagree about how to tackle certain other social justice issues.]God gave us brains for a reason, to think; and we need to use them, because the practical and moral problems we face on the way to good healthcare reform are as formidable as the goal is admirable. This is why the U.S. bishops’ conference has tried so diligently for the past three months to work with Congress and the White House in seeking sound compromise legislation. As of November 5, all those efforts have failed.

The bishops have a few simple but important priorities.

First, everyone should have access to basic health care, including immigrants. The Church would hope to see that access broadened as widely as possible. But at a minimum, it should include those immigrants who live and work in the United States legally. [We can disagree about how to do these things.]Second, reform should respect the dignity of every person, from conception to natural death. [We can’t disagree about this.] This means that the elderly and persons with disabilities must be treated with special care and sensitivity. It also means that abortion and abortion funding should be excluded from any reform plan, no matter how adroitly the abortion funding is masked. [Absolutely.] Whatever one thinks about its legality, abortion has nothing to do with advancing human “health,” and a large number of Americans regard it as a gravely wrong act of violence, not only against unborn children but also against women.

Third, real healthcare reform needs to include explicit, ironclad conscience protections for medical professionals and institutions so that they cannot be forced to violate their moral convictions. [Right!] Fourth—and this is so obvious it sometimes goes unstated—any reform must be economically realistic and financially sustainable. [And we can disagree about how that can be done.] We can’t help anyone, including ourselves, if we’re insolvent. If we commit ourselves to health services, then we need to have the will and the ability to really pay for them. That’s a moral issue, not simply a practical one.Note that these priorities do not attack the constitutional status of abortion. That’s a different battle. Nor do they take anything away from people who regard themselves as pro-choice. But they do protect the rights of the many, many citizens who see abortion as tragic and evil, and refuse to be implicated in supporting it.

Given the broad Catholic support for some kind of comprehensive healthcare reform, the historic links of the Democratic Party to the Catholic community, and the party’s total control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, the reform legislation actually moving through Congress as I write these comments on November 5 is not only inadequate and baffling, but insulting and dangerous.

With the exception of a few leaders, like Democratic Congressman Bart Stupak, Congress has ignored or rejected every attempt at resolving the serious concerns voiced by the bishops—or alternately, has pushed solutions like the Capps Amendment that do not solve the problems, and even create new ones. The White House has done nothing to intervene. “Common ground” thinking in Washington apparently has more reality as public relations than as public policy. And as a result, all of the main healthcare reform proposals in Congress, including the huge, 2,000-page merged House bill, are fatally flawed. Unless they are immediately and adequately amended, they need to be opposed and defeated. [Do I hear an "Amen!"?]

For all of Congress’ public talk about “consensus building” and “consensus health care,” Washington has proved once again that hearing loss can be job-related. Most American Catholics, from people in the pews to pastors and bishops, want healthcare reform to work. But too many people in Washington don’t know how to listen, or don’t want to listen, or just don’t care.

My one reservation with those comments is this: “First, everyone should have access to basic health care, including immigrants.”

There are two concerns here. First, that it must be clearly stated that “basic health care” does not include elective procedures, but comprises those actions essential to good health. Second, that an immigrant is someone who has come here legally, and is a fully participating member of society.

For illegals, treatment should be given when there is compelling need (emergency treatment, or treatment to prevent the spread of serious disease), but illegals are criminals under the law. Continuing need for care over an extended interval should be cause to involve immigration officials.

If the rule of law is as important as we keep hearing from politicians on both sides of the aisle, then it needs to be enforced, and not selectively. Health care bills which flaunt the law by making open-ended provision for treatment of illegals should be called what they are: unconstitutional and utterly nonsensical.

Finally, charity is something we are called to as individuals. It is a personal act, not something accomplished by the government, after it takes bread from our tables. Nor, frankly, does such action relieve us of our obligation to charity. That said, if more people would consider the issues in this fashion, we might find more opposed to government coerced redistribution.

The need for a solution that is also affordable and sustainable is a nuance I have not considered much, at least not as a moral imperative. Yet, once stated, it is obviously true.
Comment by Thomas G. — 7 November 2009 @ 9:18 am

I have considered this nuance quite a bit (for decades), and I agree with you, once formulated, it is obviously true. That’s the nature of moral principles, they are excellent guides to where the foul lines are, but don’t dictate whether to aim for a grounder, or a line-drive, or which field to hit to.

Bishop Conley, and some of his confreres, are doing a very good job of ennunciating such moral principles of late, I just hope it is not too late for the country’s sake.

The issue of “illegal immigrants” is a bit more thorny than you mention. If a man comes to work here illegally, and succeeds in getting work, and then brings his family here, and his wife gets pregnant and seeks pre-natal care, should she a) be denied and reported to INS, b) treated and reported to INS, c) treated and not reported?

(I’m speaking rhetorically here, not asking for you to “respond”.) Does your answer depend on whether she will then be deported and separated from her husband, who will be separated from his wife and child?

Etc., etc.

These are the kinds of situations that require a human and humane judge or arbitrator to sort out, rather than some simple clause in a piece of legislation which is complied with strictly, IMO. I know there are many other sides to this question, but I think that is the biggest “moral” concern I have with denying illegals any form of access to health care.

The thorns are created by those who choose to violate the law, not by our society. One of the problem areas hinges on the misapplication of the 14th amendment to the so-called anchor babies. When the 14th amendment was passed, the issues of concern were fundamental to the abolition of slavery, and to ensuring there would be no path back to slavery. Had the legislators had the foresight to imagine the invasion of illegals, and had they added to the amendment the stipulation that any child born of a woman legally resident in the country, we might not have such a mess on our hands.

I do not suggest denying illegals any and all health care, but I do propose that there is no justice, nor indeed humanity, in leaving them the possibility to unlimited and free health care while they repeatedly violate our laws. Chaos should not be supported by law.

Also, if I may anticipate one other contention, I am well aware that the violation of immigration law is only a misdemeanor, but am equally aware that the use of forged IDs and the act of accepting employment while not legally empowered to do so are felonies.

I do not suggest that the issues are simple, nor that their resolution will be, either. But to further entangle an already fouled net is quite stupid.

Can someone please define “basic health care”. I assume this does not mean any medical procedures or care required to save an individual’s life as everybody legal or not already has acces to this type of “healthcare”

I believe the Church in its social teachings speaks about “basic health care” because it recognizes that not every country or region is capable of providing what is called “state of the art” treatment. Thus its “contents”, so to speak, may vary. Anything required according to Catholic moral teaching, would be a universal requirement, but other procedures might not be strict moral requirements. Doing what is not possible in the circumstances cannot be required by the moral law.

So…
Attending Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation is not a universal requirement because in some countries or regions it is not always possible to do so?

Sorry, I suspect that what you may consider “basic helath care” may be vastly different from what I consider “basic health care”. I cannot in good conscience support something unless I know what it is I am supporting.

Personally, I couldn’t care less what you or I consider “basic health care”, it’s really what physicians consider it to be that matters.

I was simply responding to your question. An example. If anesthesia is typically regarded as “basic” for some procedure, but in a given situation (say, a battlefield) it is not available, it ceases to be required in that circumstance even if the physician may know that the odds of survival without anesthesia are remote.

Sorry to bother you. Please feel free to go back to talking in your sleep. I (mistakenly) thought you were actually asking a question.

1. A new revenue stream for Medicare, which, when all the baby boomers are in the system, will have more people using Medicare than paying into it.

2. Universal access to primary care.

3. Less access to specialized care (where the big bucks are spent). This means the end of the present situation where certain people are denied treatment by an insurance company or HMO. In its place, however, will be a treatment queue.

Bill Frist, a chest surgeon, talked about working in the British system for a year. He said its great advantage is that everyone has access to primary care. On the other hand, he said that he had a list of 100 cases and would do 3 a day. By the time he got to #60 and beyond, they were already dead.

Sorry if I came across wrong and offended you. I really was asking a question. I should have considered my words more carefully when I rejected your apparent definition of a “moral requirement”. For that I apologize.

Getting back to the issue at hand, we are told that as Catholics we must support “basic health care”, but are not told what that means. This leaves it up to the individual to define it and decide if a particular initiative will help or hinder, which means that it is absolutely pertinent what you and I consider to be “basic health care”.

Sorry, but even you have not defined it. The best you have said is “it depends” and “physicians will decide”. Where does that leave us regarding the pending proposed health care legislation? Should Catholics support it (presuming that the sactity of life language is appropriately inserted) or oppose it? How on earth can anyone be expected to make a rational decision with only vaguely defined goals?

Honestly, if you wanted to attend a Papal Audience, would you hop on the first plane that may be going in the correct general direction becaue the pilot knows where he is flying?

So how about we start over. I think we can both agree that “basic health care” includes any medical care required to preserve an individual’s life assuming that it has a reasonable chance of success and will not place an undue or impossible burden on the patient or the one providing the care. Given that this level of care already exists, it is safe to assume that “basic health care” includes more. What else should there be? I have my own ideas, but would really like to hear yours.

Whenever the Church gets into politics, the language becomes lardy. An example is VatII’s use of the phrase “total war”, which can mean many different things.

SHOPPING ONLINE? Christmas is not very far away…

Please, come here first! Enter Amazon through my search box and I will get a small percentage of what you spend. (Pssst - Can't see the search box? Turn off your "ad-blocker" for this site!)

PS: I added Amazon Search Boxes for the UK and for Canada at the bottom of the blog page. Copy and paste titles I mention into those boxes and - BAZINGA! - results appear as if by magic.
Kindle? HERE

“This blog is like a fusion of the Baroque ‘salon’ with its well-tuned harpsichord around which polite society gathered for entertainment and edification and, on the other hand, a Wild West “saloon” with its out-of-tune piano and swinging doors, where everyone has a gun and something to say. Nevertheless, we try to point our discussions back to what it is to be Catholic in this increasingly difficult age, to love God, and how to get to heaven.” – Fr. Z

PLEASE HELP with a TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION for a new set of Pontifical Vestments for the Extraordinary Form in WHITE

“The liturgy is the principal organ of the Church’s Ordinary Magisterium.”

- Pius XI

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

- 2 Chronicles 7:14 RSV

Search Fr. Z’s Blog

Search for:

CLICK and say your Daily Offering!

"We as Catholics have not properly combated (the culture) because we have not been taught our Catholic Faith, especially in the depth needed to address these grave evils of our time. This is a failure of catechesis both of children and young people that has been going on for fifty years. It is being addressed, but it needs much more radical attention... What has also contributed greatly to the situation is an exaltation of the virtue of tolerance which is falsely seen as the virtue which governs all other virtues. In other words, we should tolerate other people in their immoral actions to the extent that we seem also to accept the moral wrong. Tolerance is a virtue, but it is certainly not the principal virtue; the principal virtue is charity... Charity means speaking the truth. I have encountered it (not speaking the truth) many times myself as a priest and bishop. It is something we simply need to address. There is far too much silence — people do not want to talk about it because the topic is not 'politically correct.' But we cannot be silent any longer."

Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee) and Norcia (beer)!

"Where priest and people together face the same way, what we have is a cosmic orientation and also in interpretation of the Eucharist in terms of resurrection and trinitarian theology. Hence it is also an interpretation in terms of parousia, a theology of hope, in which every Mass is an approach to the return of Christ."

"In those situations where homosexual unions have been legally recognized or have been given the legal status and rights belonging to marriage, clear and emphatic opposition is a duty. ... If all Catholics are obliged to oppose the legal recognition of homosexual unions, Catholic politicians are obliged to do so in a particular way, in keeping with their responsibility as politicians." CDF 2003

One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting.
— C. S. Lewis

Ham Radio Stuff

Fr. Z - W9FRZ - OFFQRV on: 00m 00000
Check Echolink WB0YLE-R - OFF

For contemplation…

"One of the few things in life you can be absolutely sure about is that, if Management tells you it doesn't like your Tone, you are getting something right."

"Latin is a precise, essential language. It will be abandoned, not because it is unsuitable for the new requirements of progress, but because the new men will not be suitable for it. When the age of demagogues and charlatans begins, a language like Latin will no longer be useful, and any oaf will be able to give a speech in public and talk in such a way that he will not be kicked off the stage. The secret to this will consist in the fact that, by making use of words that are general, elusive, and sound good, he will be able to speak for an hour without saying anything. With Latin, this is impossible."

- - Giovanni Guareschi

Support them with prayer and fasting.

Click for Car Magnets

Help the Sisters. They have a building project. Get great soap (gifts, etc.) while helping REAL nuns!

Some OBLIGATORY reading…

Leave Voice Mail for Fr. Z

Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.

WDTPRS

020 8133 4535

651-447-6265

Let us pray…

Grant unto thy Church, we beseech
Thee, O merciful God, that She, being
gathered together by the Holy Ghost, may
be in no wise troubled by attack from her
foes.
O God, who by sin art offended and by
penance pacified, mercifully regard the
prayers of Thy people making supplication
unto Thee,and turn away the scourges of
Thine anger which we deserve for our sins.
Almighty and Everlasting God, in
whose Hand are the power and the
government of every realm: look down upon
and help the Christian people that the heathen
nations who trust in the fierceness of their
own might may be crushed by the power of
thine Arm. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee
in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world
without end. R. Amen.

Check out the Cardinal Newman Society feed!

Yes, Fr. Z is taking ads…

A great hymnal…

Mystic Monk Coffee also has TEA!

Because it matters what children read…

I carry one of these super-strong rosaries in my spare mag pouch! The Swiss Guards have them too!

The Swiss Guard have these rosaries!For the story clickHERE and HERE (esp. 18:00)

Because you don’t know when you are going to need to move fast or get along without the supermarket…

My wish lists

Main Wishlist Kindle WishlistAudio WishlistHam Radio ListNEW

Food For Thought

“The legalization of the termination of pregnancy is none other than the authorization given to an adult, with the approval of an established law, to take the lives of children yet unborn and thus incapable of defending themselves. It is difficult to imagine a more unjust situation, and it is very difficult to speak of obsession in a matter such as this, where we are dealing with a fundamental imperative of every good conscience — the defense of the right to life of an innocent and defenseless human being.”

For your consideration…

"One of the most dangerous errors is that civilization is automatically bound to increase and spread. The lesson of history is the opposite; civilization is a rarity, attained with difficulty and easily lost. The normal state of humanity is barbarism, just as the normal surface of the planet is salt water. Land looms large in our imagination and civilization in history books, only because sea and savagery are to us less interesting."

- C.S. Lewis

More food for thought:

“I expect to die in bed, my successor will die in prison and his successor will die a martyr in the public square. His successor will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization, as the church has done so often in human history.”

Francis Card. George

Fr. Z’s stuff is everywhere

Please follow me on Twitter!

"It will never be known what acts of cowardice have been committed for fear of not looking sufficiently progressive."

Charles Pierre PéguyNotre Patrie, 1905

"If I ought to write the truth, I am of the mind that I ought to flee all meetings of bishops, because I have never seen any happy or satisfactory outcome to any council, nor one that has deterred evils more than it has occasioned their acceptance and growth."

St. Gregory Nazianzus
ep. 131 - AD 382

“We will conquer your Rome, break your crosses, and enslave your women. If we do not reach that time, then our children and grandchildren will reach it, and they will sell your sons as slaves at the slave market.”

To set up a recurring, monthly donation via PAYPAL (even a small one) go to the bottom of this blog and look for the drop down menu! If you prefer, I also have a clearXchange account. Do you want yet another alternative to PayPal? I have set up an account with
CONTINUE TO GIVE
Get a link to donate via CONTINUE TO GIVE using your smart phone.
SEND MESSAGE:
4827563
TO:
715-803-4772

I remember benefactors in my prayers and periodically say Mass for your intention.

This catechism helped to bring Fr. Z into the Catholic Church!

Be a “Zed-Head”!

Fathers, you don’t know who might show up! It could be a “big fish” of one sort or other…

And... GO TO CONFESSION!

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?... The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin's thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt! If...if...We didn't love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation.... We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

What people say…

"Rev. John Zuhlsdorf, a traditionalist blogger who has never shied from picking fights with priests, bishops or cardinals when liturgical abuses are concerned."

- Kractivism

"Father John Zuhlsdorf is a crank"
"Father Zuhlsdorf drives me crazy"
"the hate-filled Father John Zuhlsford" [sic]
"Father John Zuhlsdorf, the right wing priest who has a penchant for referring to NCR as the 'fishwrap'"

- Michael Sean Winters

"Fr Z is a true phenomenon of the information age: a power blogger and a priest."

- Anna Arco

“Given that Rorate Coeli and Shea are mad at Fr. Z, I think it proves Fr. Z knows what he is doing and he is right.”

- Comment

"Let me be clear. Fr. Z is a shock jock, mostly. His readership is vast and touchy. They like to be provoked and react with speed and fury."

Support Military Chaplains!

Click to donate

Food For Thought

“Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites. . . . Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.”

Canadian Amazon Search Box

Archives

ENTRY CALENDAR

Do you use my blog often? Is it helpful to you?

If so, please consider subscribing to send a monthly donation. That way I have steady income I can plan on, and you wind up regularly on my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I periodically say Holy Mass.